Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-08-06

Meanwhile Muller was writing the death
warrant on sheet Of his pocket book At the
foot he left a space for his own sigma
ture, but he did not sign it for reasons of
his own. What he did do was to pass it
round to be countersigned by all who had
formed the court in this mock trial, his OBJ
ject being to implicate every man there pres
ent in the judicial murder by the direct and
incontrovertible evidence of his sign manual
Now, Beers are simple pastoral folk, but they
are not quite so simple as not TO see through a
move like this, and thereon followed a very
instructive little scene. They had, to man,
been willing enough to give their YER
dict for the old mans execution, but
they were by no means ready to record it in
black and white As soon as ever they IN
derstood the object of their feared and re-
spected commandant general desire mani
tested itself to make themselves respectively
and collectively scarce. Suddenly they found
that they had business outside, and something
like general attempt at a bolt ensued. Sew
eral of them had already tumbled off their
extemporized jury box, and, headed by the
redoubtable Hans, were approaching the en-
trance to the wagon house, when Frank Null
Ter perceived their design and roared out in a
voice of thunder:
"Stop! Not man leaves this place till the
warrant is signed
Instantly the men halted and began to look
innocent and converse.
| Hans CoetZee, come here and sign" said
Muller again, whereupon that unfortunate
| advanced with as good grace as he could
| muster, murmuring to himself curses, moi
loud but deep, upon the head of that devi
of man, Frank Muller"
| However, there was no help for it, so, with
a sickly smile, he put his name to the fata
| document in big, shaky letters. Then Muller
| called another man, who Instantly tried to gel
out of it on the ground that his education haC
been neglected and that he could not write
| an excuse that awaited him little, for Franz
| Muller quietly wrote his name for him, leav
| ing space for his mark After that there
| was no more trouble, and in five minutes til,
| entire back of the warrant was covered will
the scrawling signatures Of the various mem
berS of the court
I One by one the men went, till at last Mul
| Ter was left alone, seated there on the saw
| bench, his head sunk upon his breast, holdin!
the warrant i'll one hand, while with the othe
he stroked lis golden beard Presently L.
stopped slroking his beard and sat for som
minutes perfectly still, so still that h
might have been carved in stone By thi
time the afternoon sun had got behind th
hill and the deep wagon house was full o
| shallow that seemed to gather roun'
him and invest him with a sombeI
mysterious grandeur. He looked like kin
of evil, for evil has her princes as well a
| good, and stamps them with her imperial sea
of power, and crowns them with IA diadem @
her own: among these Frank Muller wa
surely great \ little smile Of triumph playe
upon his beautiful. cruel face, little igh
danced within his cold eyes and ran down tn
yellow beard At that moment he nigh
have sat for portrait of his master, th
devil
Presently he awokc from his reverie. "
have herr he said to himself; Il have her i
a ViSei She cannot escape me; she canno
let the old man diel Those ours have serve
my purpose well; they are as easy TO play o
as a fiddle and | am good player Yet
and now we are getting 10 the end of th
tune"